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Thursday, March 9, 2017

Spain: Ruling party rejects BDS campaign

The Partido Popular (People’s Party), the ruling party in Spain, has approved amendments that explicitly reject the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction campaign, according to the pro-Israel Spanish group ACOM.

The decision was made by rank-and- file members of the party during its 18th Ordinary Congress, the group’s official decision-making body. This marks the first specific commitment made by a Spanish political party to confront the BDS movement.

According to ACOM, the meeting was “full support for the specific rejection of antisemitic activities, and for declaring the illegitimacy of BDS campaigns.”

Additionally, the decision was made not to approve or provide any financial support to organizations, which through their actions, promote or justify discrimination on the grounds of national origin, race, religion or opinion.

“ACOM congratulates the PP for firmly confronting this serious issue, which threatens our basic liberties and the rule of law,” the advocacy group said in a statement.

“[We] will continue to work with all constitutionalist parties to apply, in effective ways, means which promote friendship with Israel, make antisemitic discrimination illegal and counteract the use of government entities to this end, suspending financial aid to groups which promote such discrimination,” the statement read.

The adoption of the amendments was “crucial,” according to ACOM, which explained that from now on those guidelines would inform and guide the party’s legislative priorities and its government at the national, regional and local levels.

Through both its legal division and its institutional relations, ACOM’s work has had a great impact in the fight against BDS, which in the past two years spread through the country, as numerous local city councils adopted BDS resolutions.

“The time has come to end the impunity, force accountability and create real deterrence against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in Spain,” ACOM president Angel Mas recently told The Jerusalem Post.To date, through the organization’s legal initiatives, 11 BDS motions have been annulled by Spanish courts, four other institutions have revoked their BDS agreements voluntarily, and two have seen their BDS statements legally suspended until a final decision is reached.